Have you noticed the prices of iBooks increasing? It’s not a mystery that publishers now view electronic versions of their hardcover editions as a way to save money. Turns out publishers are adopting Apple’s “agency pricing” model, a move making cheap iBooks on your iPad or iPhone as rare as dime store novels.
Six publishers have agreed to the new pricing, according to the Wall Street Journal. “If e-book prices land at 99 cents in the future we’re not going to be in good shape,” an unidentified New York City publisher told the newspaper. The chief benefit is that publishers control the price of ebooks, receiving 70 percent of each sale. For Amazon, which now sells more ebooks that their print cousins, the tactic of creating buzz by selling new titles for $9.99 is practically gone. In fact, Stephen King’s “11/22/63” that has a $35 hardcover price, sells for $16.99 as an ebook.
Publishers also love the new pricing model because iBooks eliminate costs associated with print. For example, iBooks don’t require physical shipping, warehousing or production. Eliminating these steps means publishers can gross $5.92 per $12.99 iBook, rather than $5.85 for traditional volumes, according to the report.
In another move in the iBook front, online bookseller is talking with publishers about a “Netflix Inc.-like service for digital books,” the Journal reported Monday. The service would provide a library of books to customers paying an annual fee. However, “several” publishers told the newspaper the idea could decrease the value of books, also stressing retail relationships.
To entice publishers, Amazon has said it would not offer new titles, plus offer companies a “substantial fee for participating,” according to the Journal.
The Amazon proposal highlights the thinking by retailers that media consumption is rapidly going digital, with consumers reading and viewing content on tablets, such as the iPad and e-readers like the Kindle.
